Put Joe Torre and Luis Sojo side by side and ask a non-baseball fan unfamiliar with both men to name which is the retired player well into his managing career, which is the 34-year-old infielder and the election would be so close the loser would demand a recount.

“I had his bubble-gum card when I was growing up,” Torre said after last night’s 12-1 win over the A’s. “It was when they were square and black and white.”

It’s not how old you look, it’s how you play and how your act plays in the clubhouse and with the customers who pay to gain admission to watch the three-peat-seeking Yankees. On that front, Sojo received straight A’s last night in his second start in a row at second base.

Sojo gets big ovations every time his name is announced at the Stadium – and even sometimes when it’s not.

When the Bleacher Creatures do their roll call, Sojo long has had a habit of pretending they are calling his name.

Last night, they were calling Bernie Williams’ name when he hit the longest of three home runs hit last night by the Yankees. Sojo popped out of the dugout and took the curtain call for the laid-back Williams, the quickest Yankee to reach 100 RBI since Joe DiMaggio.

“That’s him,” Torre said. “It’s like never missed a beat. It’s like he never left.”

Said Sojo: “That’s exactly how I feel. The whole year my mind’s been here. I kept in touch with the guys all year. I feel like I never left.”

Sojo did not appear in a game at second base for the Pirates, who used him as a third baseman, but there was no mistaking who that was vacuuming grounder after grounder and turning two double plays last night.

It felt like old times when Scott Brosius, his hands in perfect synch with a last-instant, hard hop, and Sojo teamed on an inning-ending double play that juiced the crowd of 33,466. To the men in the dugout, it felt like old times when Sojo popped out of the dugout to substitute for Bernie.